Tonight’s Gothamseason 5 episode 8 is entitled “Nothing’s Shocking” but, at the moment, we do think there’s another title you can hand down: “Well, This Is Weird.”

This was not your typical episode; as a matter of fact, in a lot of ways, it felt like season 1 with weirder, supernatural touches to it. This is an episode that was ordered well after the initial batch of ten, and it feels very much like a filler story designed to be entertaining, but also fairly inconsequential as a past case of Harvey’s came home to roost and we met the show’s version of The Ventriloquist and Scarface, one of the weirder sets of adversaries within the world of the Batman Comics.

Here, the Gotham writers decided to give the characters an interesting remix by bringing back Arthur, a longtime confidant of Oswald’s, and then throwing him into the Ventriloquist role. Here we had a fairly mild-mannered guy who was somehow back on the show and at the same time also controlled by a maniacal puppet who had no problem trying to torment and eventual kill Penguin and Riddler. There were some elements of this that served as a pretty good reminder as to where we are in this season, including the current “submarine out of the city” plan that was recently introduced. The same goes for Bruce and Alfred, who worked their way out of the sewers in this episode after what they went through in their showdown with Jeremiah.

Yet, we don’t have a good sense yet as to what happened to our proto-Joker, just as there are still some question marks out there when it comes to Selina Kyle, Lee Thompkins, Bane, and some other characters. Instead, the series instead focused on allowing us to see how the actions of Bullock’s past with Jane led to chaos in the present. What we’ve long liked about Harvey is both his imperfection and his willingness to show said imperfection. He’s made mistakes in the past, and so many of them are human. He’s not a monster born from a lab or someone intent on destroying the city. In the modern era of Gotham, you’d be shocked how easy it is to forget about some of them.

CarterMatt Verdict

Do we wish that the events of this Gotham episode mattered so much more to the long-turn narrative? Sure, but it’s dumb to complain about since this is one of two episodes that we originally weren’t supposed to get. Why be upset over two extra episodes of a truly great show? This was about paying homage to a classic Gotham villain and allowing for backstory for an often-shunner series regular and a criminally underrated actor in Donal Logue.

What is coming up next on Gotham?

Be prepared for a weird episode entitled “The Trial of Jim Gordon,” another one that was filmed after the initial ten. You can read more about it over at this link.

What do you want to see when it comes to Gotham season 5 episode 8?

Let us know some of your thoughts on that subject below! (Photo: Fox.)